Mosaic of Time: Scarcely Gilded

Lina Ramona Vitkauskas

‘Scarcely Gilded’ is a poem from the 2020 collection, Between Plague & Kleptocracy: Invented Poetic Creations & Conversations of Seva & Bill, in which the poet, Lina Ramona Vitkauskas, cross-references poems between deceased poets, Vsevolod Nekrasov & Bill Knott.

Throughout this collection, Vitkauskas serves as medium and "translator" of the posthumous conversations, making them essentially invented collaborations. Poems are written in the voice / tone / style of both Nekrasov & Knott, featuring borrowed lines and found poems within those lines—they are the transcripts of their thoughts across astral planes, what they’d perhaps discuss in this perilous time in history: of pandemic, widespread injustice, forced isolation, and of the US mesmerized by a traitorous, snake oil salesman.

SELECTED • 9th International Video Poetry Festival • Athens, Greece (2021)

Poem:

Scarcely Gilded

“Its ferocity is breathtaking and humbling.”

Before we knew
until our lungs
filled with pyrite spring
our lungs
hanging
out
or in
an elephant’s envelope

Mosaic of Time is a monthly series that each month explores another cinepoem by author and artist, Lina Ramona Vitkauskas.

The whole body of the “Mosaic of Time” section will create a broader mosaic, over time, and ideally capture time as the world progresses or regresses—plunging into global events and out again.